Outrigger Resorts & Hotels has been steadily expanding in its home state of Hawaii, adding Outrigger Kaanapali Beach Resort On Maui and Outrigger Kauai Beach Resort and Spa The company has also been gaining a foothold in the Asia-Pacific market over the past few years and now has seven hotels open in Fiji, Thailand, Mauritius and the Maldives. Hotels editor Christina Gerski has the latest on the company’s performance and the overall outlook for the travel industry from Jeff Wagner, CEO.
Jeff Wagner
ask: How is Maui’s tourism and hospitality industry coping with the aftermath of the wildfires?
one: It’s been wonderful to see all of the residents who were forced out of their homes and living in hotels and condos move into some sort of more permanent housing. The hotel has resumed traditional business, and business in West Maui is starting to grow rapidly. We are very encouraged by the occupancy rates we have so far, and they continue to improve every month. We purchased the Outrigger Kaanapali Beach Resort two weeks before the wildfires, so as you can imagine, we are still scaling up that property; but it is performing very similarly to other hotels in this market. We are in the planning stages to determine the future direction of this hotel, which we will announce soon.
ask: How is Hawaii’s overall market performing?
one: Looking at the Oahu, Honolulu and Waikiki markets, performance was very strong. Our properties performed well ahead of last year, which is gratifying. The Kauai market and the Big Island continue to perform well. The only area that we really saw a decline was, to a large extent, Maui. Kauai and the Big Island had a slight decline in performance after the wildfires, but once consumers understood that the epidemic was under control in Maui, other markets picked up.
ask: Is Hawaii benefiting from strong group travel trends?
one: The group is not typically a big shareholder in the Honolulu market, but the convention center there just had its best year in history. Our Kona Hotels The resort on Kauai has the largest meeting space of any of our resorts worldwide, so we are very focused on the return of group travel in those markets. We are seeing a good return of tour groups, and a lot of them are coming from international markets. We are seeing some groups coming from Australia, some from Canada; and Japan.
ask: Speaking of Japan, are you seeing demand starting to pick up in that market?
one: The number of Japanese tourists this year is much higher than last year. The number of Japanese tourists this year is about 50% to 60% of what it was in 2019. The currency continues to fluctuate, but it has been better recently than it was a few months ago. I think this will help a lot as the currency gap narrows.
ask: What trends are you seeing across Outrigger’s APAC portfolio?
one: Fiji is performing exceptionally well. Since Australia opened its borders to overseas tourists, Fiji hotels have been performing exceptionally well, with occupancy rates exceeding 90% every month. All three of our properties in Thailand The performance was very good and exceeded our expectations. China used to be the largest source market for Thailand and now it is starting to pick up. There are a lot of new listings in the Maldives. We are doing well there, but not as strong as some other regions. Having said that, the Maldives properties are 75% to 85% occupied and the average occupancy continues to be strong. But we found that Fiji and Thailand are performing much better than we expected.
